The Americana Revolution

From Country and Blues Roots to the Avett Brothers, Mumford & Sons, and Beyond

Michael Scott Cain

Americana is a music that defies definition. It isn’t rock, although it does encompass rock. It isn’t folk, but folk is there. It isn’t Celtic, but it is woven with Celtic threads. It is a blend of forms, music that draws on a wide range of influences. Gathering these many genres together, Americana continually reinvents itself and actively tells the story of its origins and its future.

The Americana Revolution: From Country and Blues Roots to the Avett Brothers, Mumford & Sons, and Beyond is an informal social history that describes Americana as both a musical genre and a movement, showing what it is, where it came from, and where it is going. Musician and historian Michael Scott Cain examines how the idea of genre, especially Americana, affects the creation and consumption of music. He tries to discern the formulas of this slippery genre and seeks out the places where artists have broken or bent those formulas in the name of creativity. Through anecdotes and interviews, Cain provides a firsthand view into the creation of Americana to clarify how the genre can be categorized and defined.

Through the stories of its creators both long gone and new to the scene, Americana music comes alive as a diverse melting pot of creative genius. With this book, Cain grants music lovers from all backgrounds an unparalleled view into the future of a music that embraces new influences but never forgets its roots.

Rowman & Littlefield Publishers

Pages: 264 • Trim: 6¼ x 9½

978-1-4422-6940-8 • Hardback • April 2017 • $53.00 • (£41.00)

978-1-4422-6941-5 • eBook • April 2017 • $50.00 • (£38.00)

Series: Roots of American Music: Folk, Americana, Blues, and Country

Subjects: Music / Genres & Styles / Folk & Traditional, Music / History & Criticism

The Americana Revolution

From Country and Blues Roots to the Avett Brothers, Mumford & Sons, and Beyond

Hardback

eBook

Summary

Americana is a music that defies definition. It isn’t rock, although it does encompass rock. It isn’t folk, but folk is there. It isn’t Celtic, but it is woven with Celtic threads. It is a blend of forms, music that draws on a wide range of influences. Gathering these many genres together, Americana continually reinvents itself and actively tells the story of its origins and its future.

The Americana Revolution: From Country and Blues Roots to the Avett Brothers, Mumford & Sons, and Beyond is an informal social history that describes Americana as both a musical genre and a movement, showing what it is, where it came from, and where it is going. Musician and historian Michael Scott Cain examines how the idea of genre, especially Americana, affects the creation and consumption of music. He tries to discern the formulas of this slippery genre and seeks out the places where artists have broken or bent those formulas in the name of creativity. Through anecdotes and interviews, Cain provides a firsthand view into the creation of Americana to clarify how the genre can be categorized and defined.

Through the stories of its creators both long gone and new to the scene, Americana music comes alive as a diverse melting pot of creative genius. With this book, Cain grants music lovers from all backgrounds an unparalleled view into the future of a music that embraces new influences but never forgets its roots.

Details

Rowman & Littlefield Publishers

Pages: 264 • Trim: 6¼ x 9½

978-1-4422-6940-8 • Hardback • April 2017 • $53.00 • (£41.00)

978-1-4422-6941-5 • eBook • April 2017 • $50.00 • (£38.00)

Series: Roots of American Music: Folk, Americana, Blues, and Country

Subjects: Music / Genres & Styles / Folk & Traditional, Music / History & Criticism

Author

Michael Scott Cain is the author of seven books of poetry, most recently East Point Poems, and three novels, including Midnight Train, a country music novel. After teaching popular culture and literature at the collegiate level for forty years, he now covers the topic in the Frederick News-Post while also serving as jazz, blues, poetry, and folklore editor for Rambles.

Table of Contents

Introduction
1. Origins of the Americana Movement
2. Will the Circle Be Unbroken?
3. When Things Go Wrong, Blame the Radio
4. Don’t Drink from a Bottle If You Didn’t See It Opened
Interlude: Roger McGuinn: Respecting Tradition While Transforming It
5. “If I could find a white boy who sang black”
6. Appropriating Black Culture
Interlude: Rosanne Cash
7. The Irish Claim the Bronx
8. Bringing the Good News
9. The Battle for the Soul
Interlude: Kris Kristofferson
10. As Duke Ellington Said, There’s Only Two Types of Music: Good and Bad
11. Speaking the Truth to Those Who Have Ears to Listen
12. Americana as a Symbol of Musical Adulthood
13. Let’s Go Backwards When Forwards Fails
14. Swallowing Other Genres
15. A Sense of Community
16. It Might Be a Great Bag to Be In, But Why Must I Be in a Bag at All?
Interlude: Jim Lauderdale
17. The Archetype of Americana
18. Back to the Question: Do We Have Any Idea What Americana Is?
Coda: An Annotated List of Recommended Recordings
Select Bibliography

Reviews

Cain has produced a modest but helpful introduction to Americana music. A broad-based musical notion developed in the latter decades of the 20th century and promoted by the Americana Music Association (which was formed in 1995), Americana music includes various types of noncommercial music, e.g., folk, blues, gospel, traditional country, and Irish. Cain focuses mostly on influential musicians—Jimmie Rodgers, the Carter family, Robert Johnson, Mississippi John Hurt, Muddy Waters, Roger McGuinn—but he also looks at important music businessmen (Sam Phillips of Sun Records, Atlanta DJ Zenas Sears). There is brief biographical information on Buddy Holly, the Everly Brothers, Rosanne Cash, the Clancy Brothers, Thomas A. Dorsey, the Blind Boys of Alabama, Kris Kristofferson, Patsy Cline, Joe South, John Stewart, Jennifer Knapp, the Allman Brothers, Steve Earle, Jim Lauderdale, Mumford and Sons, and the Avett Brothers. The author draws on numerous interviews. The bibliography references section includes some recent secondary publications…. The discography may prove useful. Americana music needs much more research, but this is a decent start.

Summing Up: Recommended…. Lower-division undergraduates through faculty and professionals; general readers.
— Choice Reviews

Does Americana have a future? There is an Americana Music Association, together with an annual awards show and some radio/satellite/public-television programming with that format. There are a few magazines. No one who is not financially involved with the music industry would deny that independent voices are a good thing. So it's worth your while to pay attention. And while you're doing so, you really need to read The Americana Revolution, a spirited guide to both the sounds and the questions.
— Rambles.NET

In a world preoccupied by style and identity, how do artists living in the margins continue to thrive? Cain explores the rise of the diverse genre of Americana in order to examine the history of music’s discomfort with boundaries. Defying labels and commodification, passionate musicians and listeners still sing
— Jennifer Knapp, Grammy Award-nominated musician